If a Picture Holds a Thousand Words
by moonshadow2012
Summary: Bruce is missing and the Avengers need to find him without Tony's help. The answer to his whereabouts might be hidden in collections of videos given to them by an anonymous, untraceable helper. The clues are all there, they just need to use their unique skills to interpret them. T for violence and *possible* character death.
1. Chapter 1

Nick Fury looked down at the file on the computer in front of him. He wasn't used to the feeling of regret that tinged his memories of the two men the file had belonged to. He sighed, knowing he had a duty to preform and the more time he spent neglecting it the harder it was going to get to not just keep neglecting it. He opened the file and watched as dozens of videos filled the screen. He scrolled down to the bottom of the page and clicked on the oldest item.

Nick could tell right away it had been shot in the middle of the night, but the camera was obviously an expensive piece of equipment judging by the quality of the night view on the video. The furniture, the room, and everything else in it was green and black, like it was shot on some alien world. Nick felt himself being drawn into the video as it progressed. As a spy, Nick Fury made a living off getting inside peoples' heads. But he never really got to see what people outside of his loop experienced. This video might give him a little insight into two of the men he'd never been able to really understand.

_Tony's shuffled footsteps were cautious as he looked around the room. After hitting something for the third time, the genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist (_Avenger_, he was proud to add) finally got the idea to look through the camera to see where he was going. He started it up and hit record just for the heck of it._

_Tony found his way with to the security system on the door more easily after that. Hacking into the system only took a couple seconds longer than his usual time, and he traveled inside the small apartment. He looked around. There was a kitchen branching off some sort of living room, then a short hallway with two doors in it. The first room was a bathroom, but the second room yielded more promising results. There was someone sleeping on a mattress on the floor. There was also a desk and a bunch of dissected electronic devices littering the floor, their intestines spilling out._

_Tony got on his knees beside the bed and reached out, covering the mouth of the man who was sleeping on the mattress. His eyes shot open, green irises flashing as the face turned slightly more green then everything else in the camera. The man relaxed slightly when he saw who his attacker was, eyes returning to their normal brown and skin returning to its normal night-vision green. A hand reached out of the blanket and knocked Tony's arm aside._

"_Tony!" The man hissed angrily. "Do you have a death wish?"_

"_Good to see you too, Bruce." Tony replied in his normal, unfazed tone. "I have an idea."_

"_So do I – you can leave and never come back." Bruce was fully awake now and as angry as a non-Hulk Banner could get. He pushed off the covers and sat on the edge of the mattress in his pajama pants and undershirt._

"_No can do, buddy. I want you in on this. It's really important." Tony's lack of a sarcastic comeback was enough to make Bruce just a little curious._

"_What is this idea?" He asked. "That I'm not going to be a part of," He added unconvincingly. That was enough for Tony._

"_Not now." He said. "I'll tell you when we get back to Stark Tower – actually, I'll show you. That'll be easier."_

"_Tony, I'm not even in yet." Bruce protested. "And I'm in my pajamas!" Tony waved a hand._

"_Like it matters." He said. "And you will be, trust me."_

The rest of the video was more shuffling around Bruce's apartment until Bruce finally insisted that Tony shut off the camera and follow the guy who actually lived there. Nick Fury looked at the dozens of other videos and decided that he didn't have to watch them all – especially if they included Tony and Bruce speaking their incomprehensible science language. He skipped up a few and clicked on one.

This one was shot in the daylight, but was such a change from the one he'd just been watching it took Fury a few seconds to adjust. He recognized the room as the top floor of Stark Tower, but the scene was a little different than usual. Now, there was shiny paper hanging from the ceiling and lots of decorations everywhere. The other thing that was strange was the fact that almost all the Avengers were gathered in it, and they looked…relaxed.

_Bruce held the camera up, experimenting with all the effects as he recorded the other Avengers in the room. They'd been working for a few hours now to make the room look as festive as possible using nothing but shiny paper and their combined lack of experience with this sort of thing. He swung the camera around to where Natasha and Clint were setting up trays of food on a long table._

"_Wave, kids," He said. Natasha looked up and elbowed Clint in the side, waving almost like she'd never done it before._

"_I am so bad at this kind of thing." She admitted, looking embarrassed._

"_Yeah, because we're all so good at it." Clint joked, moving so there was only half an inch of space between them. For spies, this was like a super hug for all the physical touch they did._

"_Yeah, Clint's right." Bruce agreed. "We're probably the last people on the planet you'd expect to find setting up a party like this. Except maybe Steve." The scientist swung the camera until he located the spangled superhero. "Have you ever done this before, Captain?" He asked. Steve Rogers shrugged._

"_I don't really remember ever doing something exactly like _this_, but I have set up one or two surprise parties for Bucky." He replied. Bruce moved the camera around Steve's handiwork._

"_Looks good," He complimented. It was almost obvious from Bruce's voice that he still wasn't entirely comfortable with himself being around them, and from their expressions they felt around the same. But at least they were all getting along fairly well, right? The door burst open suddenly and a frantic redhead rushed in._

"_He's coming!" Pepper hissed. "He'll be here in…" She held up her watch. "Five, four, three, two…" Tony Stark walked through the door._

"_Surprise!" Bruce called. Tony looked very surprised. He looked around the room._

"_Wow," He said, "Everything looks great…what's the occasion?" The other Avengers looked at each other in confusion and dismay._

"_Are you serious?" Steve asked. Natasha tossed Pepper the calendar that had previously been hanging on the wall. Pepper pointed to the date that was circled._

"_It's your birthday, idiot." She reminded her boyfriend gently. He glanced at the calendar and stared at the date like the week had lost or gained a day somehow._

"_Yeah, what kind of narcissistic megalomaniac are you if you can't even remember that?" The Black Widow joked. Tony smirked, his self-confident egotistical façade back in place._

"_Be nice Nat, it's his birthday." Clint teased. She frowned, pretending to pout._

"_He fired me, I get to be mean to him." She defended. Tony snorted._

"_Um, you spied on me for Fury and put me under house arrest. I _win_." Tony shot back. He looked around. "Well if this is my party, where are all the girls?" He asked. Pepper glared darkly at him. "Kidding." He amended, holding up his hands. "Only kidding, I swear."_

"_Don't worry, we make up for it with a little more champagne then should be needed for any eight people." Steve said, gesturing to the bottles lined up on the counter next to the food. Tony grinned._

"_Now you're starting to think like an American of today." He congratulated. Steve scoffed._

"_Hardly. I'm just starting to think like today's Stark." He retorted._

"_Why don't we continue this over some food and drink, comrades?" Thor asked, heading for the alcohol. Bruce followed him with the camera._

"_I agree with Shakespeare." Tony said, walking back into the range of the camera alongside Thor. "Wait, who's the eighth person?"_

"_Who else?" A friendly voice made him turn. His face brightened in a smile._

"_Rhodey!" He exclaimed. "Here to crash my party again?" The friend in question smiled easily._

"_Just here to make sure you don't get into trouble as Iron Man when you're drunk off your feet. Again." He smirked._

"_Let me guess – you're the designated driver?" Bruce asked. Rhodey raised an eyebrow in his direction._

"_Something like that. I'm also the bouncer, so don't get any ideas." He warned with mock sincerity._

"_Yeah, I don't think even you could stop this one when he gets mad, Rhodey." Tony said from the counter where he was pouring himself a second glass._

"_I think the Other Guy wants to give you a birthday hug." Bruce threatened. As usual when he made any threats about the Hulk, Tony just laughed._

"_Yeah, I'd like to see you try." He replied._

"_Me too." Steve joked. Natasha laughed and Clint handed her a glass of wine._

"_All right boys, let's calm down and enjoy ourselves." Pepper suggested. Tony took her arm and pulled her into a sudden kiss. When he let go, she stared up at him in surprise. "What was that?" She asked._

"_My birthday kiss." Tony grinned, holding out the second glass of alcohol. "Champagne?" Bruce laughed and put the camera down._

Nick Fury shook his head. The Avengers had become more than a team. After a couple missions together, they were safely allies – borderline _friends_ believe it or not. Of course there was still in-fighting (mostly between Tony and Steve), but instances like Tony's birthday party proved that their disagreements didn't always matter to them.

Nick frowned when he thought back to the strange mysteriousness of the first video. As inclined as he was to believe it was just some more Stark madness, he knew it was probably something more. Because even though Tony was known to have some of the craziest ideas anyone could ever think up, they usually made sense once everybody realized where he was going with them. That was one of the things that made him a genius.

Nick considered going back to see what he missed, but decided that it could wait. After all, if the project was as big as Tony had made it seem, it probably wasn't over yet. Nick Fury skipped a few more videos and clicked on one at random. The scenery here was different than it had been before. Judging by the way the picture seemed to curve, Nick knew it had to have been shot from Iron Man's helmet. There was smoke, rubble…destruction was written over everything in the previously-populated area. And it hadn't been that previous. Nick thought back to all the Avengers' missions, but only one stuck in his mind that matched the scene that was before him.

"It has to be…" But all the same he really wished that he was wrong.

_As soon as Iron Man touched down on the cracked pavement and looked around. There was silence here – not something you'd expect from a place that had just been hit really hard by super villains. You'd expect screaming people running for their lives, or silent people cowering in the shadows, wincing whenever anyone's eyes fell on them. Unless…Iron Man didn't let himself dwell on the 'unless'. He swallowed hard._

"_Bruce?" He called. There was no answer, but he hadn't really been expecting one. If Bruce was anywhere near here – had been anywhere near here during the attack – he was either too far away to have heard him land or too far into Hulk Mode to care._

_Iron Man walked along the street – or what used to be the streets anyway. He didn't know why he didn't fly, but it might have had something to do with the gravity of the situation – ha ha. A few minutes later his helmet com crackled to life._

"_What's on your end Stark?" A serious, heroic voice asked._

"_Nothing." Iron Man replied. "There's nothing here, Cap." Something moved and Iron Man whipped around to face it. Some debris was rolling away close to a corner about a block away from him. "Um…scratch that. I think I found something."_

"_If it's big and green, do not engage." The voice of the sole female Avenger commanded._

"_Of course not." Iron Man shot back, offended. "The Hulk's on our side, Agent Romanoff. Or did you forget?" Black Widow ignored his biting tone._

"_I'm serious Tony." She said, proving how serious she was by saying his first name. "You might not want to fight him, but he might want to fight you."_

"_Consider your opinion noted." Iron Man replied sarcastically. "See you when you get here." He disconnected the com link and faced the empty block around the corner. "Great." He murmured. The ground shook as something dropped to the ground behind him. Iron Man turned and looked up at the green giant. "There you are." He stated the obvious. But there was something in his friends' eyes that made him hesitate. "What's wrong?" He asked._

"_You did this." Hulk growled. Iron Man took a step back._

"_What?" He gasped like he'd been punched in the stomach – not by the Hulk, if he'd been punched by the Hulk he'd be having a hard time saying anything with all the blood he'd be coughing up. Hulk threw a piece of metal to the ground at Iron Man's feet._

"You did this._" He growled again. Iron Man knelt down and picked up the piece of metal with a sinking heart. Sure enough, two words were written on what was almost definitely a weapon of mass destruction. _Stark Industries._ He looked up at his friend._

"_Hulk, look, I didn't do this. These people must have stolen my tech or bought it before I stopped weapons development." He was almost begging. Hulk glared at him in disgust. Then he said the words that had haunted the billionaire since he'd escaped from Afghanistan._

"_Even if you didn't do it, you made the weapon. It's still your fault." He said. Iron Man was so stunned that he was hearing those words coming from the mouth of someone he considered one of his closest friends, he didn't see the large green hand coming at him._

_Hulk hit Iron Man hard enough to knock him into the base of one of the buildings. It wasn't enough to do real damage to him, that much was obvious both to the suit and the man inside it. Hulk didn't want to hurt him, no matter what Black Widow said. What _was_ enough to do real damage was the few dozen tons of instable skyscraper he'd been tossed into. The last thing Iron Man saw before he was buried by concrete was Hulk's frozen expression. He almost looked scared…but scared was a very un-Hulk-like emotion._

Nick Fury rubbed his eye as the video cut off in a buzz of static. It had taken the Avengers almost two days to find their comrade in the rubble. That was long enough for the Hulk to get anywhere. Or Bruce Banner. He'd been gone for almost an hour already by the time they'd shown up.

Thanks to the very-efficient suit of armor's ventilation system (and filters) Tony Stark was fine when they did find him. The suit itself was almost in flight condition, except a little more compressed. Tony also needed some fine-tuning in the food and water department, which he was happy to take care of while he searched for his friend the big green monster. Black Widow had been against it at first, but after a few screaming fights she was reluctantly on board.

Nick Fury remembered the day he'd gotten the call. Black Widow was on the line with Hawkeye. They wanted a favor. He remembered actually having to ask his agents to repeat themselves to make sure he heard them right. They wanted him to let Tony Stark use SHIELD's satellites to track Hulk DNA.

It took a lot of convincing.

When they finally did convince him, he was very surprised when only ten of the less-classified files on Stark weapons went missing by the end of the little arrangement. They found Banner hiding out in the Middle East. There were lots of guns in the area he chose – maybe he was hoping he'd get shot.

To this day Nick didn't know how they'd done it, but somehow the five of them had convinced Banner to come back to New York with Tony. Maybe that was it – even after what he'd done, Tony still wanted him around to nerd out with. Fury still wasn't surprised when Banner disappeared again a few weeks later.

Stark showed considerable restraint in asking for permission before hacking into the SHIELD databases to find him. This kept repeating until, as Tony put it 'Bruce got it through his thick skull that there isn't a corner on the planet that's Stark-proof'. Fury was also certain that there wasn't anyone on the un-Stark-proof planet who could out-stubborn the public's crown prince.

So eventually Banner moved back to New York. He actually moved in with Tony so Tony could 'keep an eye on him', which basically made it official that Stark's inner circle now had three members – four if you counted the Hulk and Bruce separately.

Nick Fury's work cell rang and he picked it up. It was Natasha.

"How's the search coming? Got anything useful yet?" She demanded.

"Not yet." He replied. "How's it going there?" Natasha sighed irritably.

"We have nothing. Figures too – we need Bruce to find Bruce." She growled. Nick nodded, then sighed, going to the top of the list.

"I'll be over in around half an hour. Just keep searching for gamma signatures." He said. Natasha made a strangled noise.

"You do realize that there's more than one gamma signature on the planet, right?" She asked. "We have SHIELD scientist working on it and we're flying around checking every dead end they come up with. So far, it's not doing much."

"That's an order, Agent Romanoff." He said.

"I'll do my best, Sir." She replied irritably, hanging up. Nick sighed, feeling reluctance creep into his veins. It was a feeling he didn't have a lot. Finally, he clicked on the newest video and forced himself to watch till what he knew was going to happen at the end.

_Bruce and Tony were dragged out of the bar into a deserted side street in Paris. The bags were ripped off their heads as they were shoved through a door. Bruce looked at his friend – his _partner_ now. (He was still getting over that. He couldn't believe that Tony had appointed a 'giant green rage monster' as his co-CEO of Stark Industries!) Tony looked very calm, which wasn't unusual for him. It didn't matter if they were faced with a lawsuit or all the red tracking dots on their chests now, Tony took it all in stride._

"_How about you put away the laser pointers?" He asked in his personal blend of sarcasm and condescending self-confidence. The men who were aiming the guns at them looked at each other. It figured. Even among criminals, Tony's 'boss-voice' held authority._

"_How about you tell us what two Avengers are doing in Paris at this time of year?" A man asked, stepping through the middle of the guns. His posture held the confidence of a man with a lot of big guns on his side. Tony's posture held the confidence of someone who was allergic to death._

"_We're celebrating." Tony replied. Bruce was silent, almost hiding behind Tony. If it came to a fight, he wasn't so sure he could keep the other Avenger out of his crosshairs._

_After all this time, Bruce was the only Avenger who still didn't trust himself._

"_Celebrating what exactly?" The man began to circle them. Tony didn't move, keeping his eyes on the spot the man had once occupied._

"_Success, of course. You probably know nothing about that though." Tony was speaking as if he was the one holding the guns. "I mean, you purposely kidnap two Avengers – one of which is arguably the most powerful person on the earth. That's not so smart. Brains like that won't get you very far, believe me."_

_The man was almost in front of Tony now. His eyes flashed and he kicked the genius in the stomach, elbowing him in the back as he went down. Bruce moved toward his friend who was gasping on his knees, but was stopped by a hand. The hand was jerked back suddenly and the man lifted Tony's head by his hair._

"_You are nothing to me." He hissed in a violent, rage-filled voice. "Just an annoying science experiment gone wrong. All that's keeping you alive in in a glowing sphere on your chest. Next time you insult someone's planning, make sure your power source isn't in such an obvious place." Tony met the eyes of the man fearlessly._

"_There's no shame in sharing success." His voice was quiet, but the words were loaded with bait. The man flung him to the ground and walked towards his gunmen. Bruce helped Tony up._

"_That was stupid." He said. "You shouldn't antagonize them." Tony waved a hand._

"_I've seen guys like this before. They're all bark and no bite." He assured his friend. Bruce glanced at the bruises on Tony's wrist but said nothing else. Tony turned to the man. "What do you want…um, I didn't catch your name? What was it again?" The man turned around._

"_Call me the Reaper." He said._

"_As in Grim?" Tony crossed his arms. The Reaper turned an impressive shade of red._

"_As in reaping what others have sown. As in reaping the benefits of destruction and annihilation of its rightful owners." He waved his hands. "We are about to unleash a destroying force such as the world has never seen before. And no one and nothing will stand in our way. Not you, and not Iron Man. Not even the Hulk or the Avengers." Tony clapped._

"_Good show. But we've taken down an alien force from the other side of space – I don't think you and your knockoff toy guns are going to be much of a threat." He said._

"_Let's hear you say that when armies of Hulk monsters are rampaging across the world." He growled. Tony laughed._

"_And how are you planning to do that?" Bruce was on high alert now. They had a plan. They had to have a plan. They wanted him, wanted his blood – they wanted to clone him. No…they wanted to clone the Hulk. All he had to do was not transform. Not transform… Yeah. Piece of cake._

_He felt a hand on his shoulder and steadied his shaking hands. He took a deep breath and felt calm overtake him. He looked up in surprise and saw Tony slipping the needle back into his suit jacket pocket. He dropped his hands and put them in his pocket, leaning back. He could almost hear Tony's words in his head. He was right – Bruce needed to relax. It was going to be okay._

"_You need to stay human, bro." He whispered in a voice so low Bruce wouldn't have been able to hear it if he hadn't been standing next to him._

"_Easy. All we have to do is unleash the Hulk, then grab a sample of his blood as he's tearing apart the city and you along with it." Reaper said. Tony scoffed._

"_Yeah, sounds really simple." He said. The Reaper looked directly at Bruce._

"_Shouldn't be that hard to get you mad, based on what I've heard." He mused. Bruce smiled._

"_Actually, I've never been further from mad." He replied truthfully. He saw Tony smirk at him out of the corner of his eye._

"_Is that so?" Reaper commanded his attention again. "How far are you now?" It happened too fast for Bruce to register on his own, but with his Hulk-heightened senses he saw the whole thing. The Reaper's hand motion, one of the gunmen on the right pulling the trigger, a loud _BANG_ echoing in the quiet. Bruce looked down, expecting to see green skin and a bullet lying on the floor. It was then that he realized he hadn't been the target._

_Tony was on the ground, arms around his waist. But even that wasn't enough to quench the blood flowing from the wound in his stomach. Bruce fell to his knees like he'd been the one shot._

"_Tony!" He shouted, grabbing his friend's shoulder. Tony looked up at him, no pain in his eyes. That meant he was going into shock. He raised up one blood-stained arm and grabbed Bruce's._

"_Don't worry about me." He said before he fell to the ground. Bruce caught him, setting him down gently. White hot rage boiled inside of him, but the Hulk was sleeping and for the life of him – for the life of Tony even, he couldn't wake him up. He held onto Tony's hand._

"_Tony, please." He whispered. He didn't know what he was pleading for, but he wanted Tony to be around when he found out. Tony smiled weakly at his friend before two of the gunmen pulled him away, forcing him to his feet in front of the confused and frustrated Reaper._

"_You didn't transform." He stated. "His life mustn't mean that much to you…" Bruce's eyes were on Tony's bleeding body. How wrong he was. "That's okay. I'll find a way to make the Hulk come out, and when he does…"_

"_I'll kill you." Bruce looked to the Reaper. "When you do, I'll kill you. Then I'll kill your army. Then I'll kill all the clones. I'll kill everyone." His voice was loaded with venom. Reaper patted his cheek._

"_I'm sure you will." He said in a voice like he was talking to a child. He turned to his men. "Take him away." Bruce struggled, but as a human he was no match for two strong mercenaries._

"_Tony!" He called. "Tony!" Tony didn't respond. He never would._

Nick rubbed the bridge of his nose as the video cut out. They'd known Tony was dead. They hadn't found his body, but nobody could've lost that much blood and survived. That was what the paramedics said. Nick had made sure they'd examined every possibility. There was no chance.

A beeping from his cell made him look down at it in confusion. It was his private phone, the number which was held by a select handful of people. The number was unknown, probably one of those texts from companies to convince you to buy their product. Sighing, he opened it anyway. What he saw made him stop for a second.

_I know who you're looking for, _It read, _And I know where to find him._

**So I think it'll need a few more chapters. What do you think? Is it worth it? Review and state your opinion!**

**I**

**I**

**V**


	2. Chapter 2

Bruce woke up on a rough blanket that had been spread over a metal cot on the floor of a room somewhere that _wasn't _where he wanted to be. That was all he could remember after being dragged away from Tony… Tony. Bruce covered his face with a hand, grief welling up in him. It was typical of this kind of thing to happen – he got a best friend and the world stole him away like it'd stole everything else he valued. The Avengers – most of them – were still there – probably – but Bruce was sure that someday, when he needed them the most, their jet would explode.

Bruce contemplated moving to a sitting position, but decided he'd rather be asleep. Then again, he owed it to Tony to figure out who these people were and stop them. He sat up. Almost immediately, a door opened across from him and three people came through. Two were nearly-identical gunmen holding weapons that could hurt someone very badly if they didn't have a gamma monster locked inside of them, and the third was a young woman wearing tattered clothes that might have been nice back when she had been kidnapped. She had short, dark brown hair in a pixie cut and huge, beautiful brown eyes. Bruce attempted a friendly smile.

"What's your name?" He asked. She looked at him warily.

"My name is Jennifer. You can call me Jen." She replied. "You are Bruce Banner – the Hulk." He nodded, a sinking feeling starting in his stomach. Even if Tony and the Avengers accepted him – even with the little 'experiment' they were working on together (Bruce almost kicked himself. _Had been _working on together. Tony was dead now.) people would always be afraid of him. Except this woman didn't look afraid.

"Yeah." He replied. She nodded.

"Enjoy your breakfast, Mr. Hulk." She put the tray down in front of him and walked out, followed by the gunmen. Bruce looked down at the fried chicken sandwich and water. There was even a little cup of wine. Whoever these people were, they didn't want to starve him to death. He pushed the tray away and lay down again. He wasn't hungry.

Bruce narrowed his eyes and sat back up, picking up the glass of wine. There was a piece of paper beneath it. Only the edge had been showing before. He held it in a cupped hand for a minute or so, debating whether to open it or not. Eventually he opened his hand and unfolded the note.

_Good morning, Dr. Banner._ It started out. _Enjoy your breakfast. Courtesy of the Reaper._ He scoffed and crumpled up the note, starting to toss it away. Before he could, he noticed something in the light. He frowned, flattening it out and holding it up to the bare bulb that lit the room. _Question everything you think you know._ A message read. He stared at it for a moment, then growled and tossed it across the room. Everything he thought he knew? What was that supposed to mean?

_The video was shot somewhere dark. It was probably the middle of the night in whatever country the back alley belonged in. There weren't any stars, so the only light came from the flickering lamp posts. It wasn't a nice neighborhood, so the huddled group of men didn't seem that out of place. It was only when the picture zoomed in that anyone was able to make out the weapons the men had strapped to their chests._

_They were carrying a coffin down the street, which was odd enough as it was. But it was also midnight, as if they wanted to bring back some dead relative with the magic of nonexistent moonlight. They stopped at a door, knocking three times. A small rectangular opening was revealed, the eyes occupying it icy cold. Several muttered sentences were exchanged and the panel was replaced. The door opened and the men carried the coffin inside._

"That was it?" Steve Rogers sat back in his chair. "That was very helpful of your anonymous friend." Sarcasm was one of the things he'd learned to use when he needed to. Nick Fury stood across from him at the head of the table.

"It's a clue." He said. "There's obviously something important about that image."

"Is he trying to say that Bruce was in the coffin?" Natasha wondered out loud.

"Or maybe that's where they took Tony's body. Like they wanted whoever was inside the house to extract the arc reactor or something." Clint added.

"Or maybe they killed Bruce." Natasha guessed. "And they hid his body in the coffin and they want to drain his blood for the clone army?"

"Or both of the bodies are in the coffin and they want to do both of those things." Clint and Natasha were leaning close to each other, their spy minds going over all the horrible, grave-looting, body-dissecting possibilities.

"Or it's a dead-end video of a group of armed men carrying a coffin into a house." Steve hadn't gotten much sleep what with one of his friends being dead and the other being captured by who-knows-what kind of people. Steve was the most sensitive of the Avengers, so losses hurt him more than it did any of them, and he wasn't as good at hiding it.

"Even if you two are close to the truth, wouldn't it have been more productive of this ally to give us something else to go on like a landform or something else helpful?" Thor asked.

"I agree." Steve said. "It's so cryptic, how do we know this guy is actually trying to help us?" Nick sighed.

"I know it looks bad, but in all honesty this is the only thing we have to go on." He said. "Nobody but Bruce and Tony know – knew – how to track specific gamma signatures, so this is the best bet we have." He replayed the video on the holo-projector. "You two are the best spies I've got. Find something – a street sign, a basic building style, something. And you two, help them. Maybe a difference in perspective is just what we need right now."

"We'll do our best, Director." Natasha said. Fury nodded.

"I'm not doubting that." He replied. "If it helps, I'll give you the other videos on the file I got from Tony's office."

"That'd be a good idea." Clint told him. Fury nodded, then turned and walked out of the room. The four remaining Avengers looked at each other.

"I hope our best will be good enough." Steve said. Clint nodded.

"It will be." He said. "I mean, if we can stop an alien invasion this should be a piece of cake." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"But you can't hit a video to make it tell you where it was shot." She reminded him.

"But you can shoot it and see for yourself." Thor suggested.

"I agree with him." Steve commented. Natasha fingered her weapon.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said.

_Pepper Pots held up a notebook in front of her face, laughing._

"_Get away from me with that camera!" She exclaimed. A man laughed from behind the camera, as familiar to her as her own._

"_Come on, Pep, it's just a little camera. What's it going to do?" Tony asked. She leaned over and hit his arm with the notebook._

"_Stop it! I'm not you, the camera doesn't love me." She protested. Tony laughed again._

"_Fine. I'll film the floor and you can tell me what you think about our new project." The camera began to study the patterns in the carpet. Pepper groaned._

"_Now you're making me feel guilty." She whined._

"_It's a skill." Tony replied, not sounding at all sorry. There was a sound that suggested Tony got hit again with the notebook. "Come on, seriously. What do you think?" Pepper sighed._

"_I think it's a great idea – if it _works._ I don't want you to get Bruce's hopes up for nothing." She said._

"_Yeah. But it will." Tony sounded certain, but then again he always did. "I've done the calculations and this should work – I'm never wrong – all we have to do is get what we have from point A to point triple-dozen Z." Pepper hummed._

"_Sounds like lots of homework." She sounded regretful._

"_Don't worry, I'm good at getting it done in school." Tony assured her._

Nick Fury watched the video cut out as he leaned back in the chair, fingers interlocked on the table in front of him.

"What were you up to, Tony?" He murmured.

Bruce didn't eat for two days. After that, one of the gunmen informed him that if he was planning on starving himself to death, they were authorized to shoot him. Bruce almost wanted them to. He almost wanted to feel the overwhelming rage fill him and overpower his consciousness, pushing him into oblivion while the Other Guy did who-knows-what. And, as sick as it sounded, he wanted to wake up and see the broken bodies of the man who'd murdered his best friend strewn like garbage through the streets.

But even though he was still furious about what had happened, the Hulk seemed to be in the middle of his long nap without any intention of waking up. Bruce took a drink of the wine and hit his fist on the table. _WAKE UP! _ He shouted in his head. He dropped his head to his hands and sighed shakily.

_Make up your mind._ A darker, stronger presence welled up inside him, bringing with it almost primal thoughts that were definitely not Bruce's own. _First you want Hulk to disappear, then you want him to come back. Hulk is confused – Hulk doesn't like being confused._

Bruce was visibly shaking now. He felt like someone had turned on an electric current underneath him. The presence had disappeared as mysteriously as it had come, but Bruce was still terrified. Was he going crazy? Had he actually just heard that voice in his head? Had he actually just…_communicated _with the Hul…the Other Guy? Bruce glanced warily at the wine.

"No more drinks." He murmured. When Jen came in to take his tray after he was done, he smiled at her again. She smiled back. "Jen…what's in the wine?" he asked.

"Alcohol." Jen shrugged. "I'm not a wine brewer, and I don't know where they get it from. I just deliver it." He nodded. That was it. It must have been the wine. He'd only taken a sip, but still… The guards led Jen out of the room and locked the door. Bruce stared at it and wondered exactly what they were waiting for. He wondered what they had planned for him, and why they hadn't done it yet.

Pepper was alone in Stark Tower. With Tony…missing…and Bruce gone as well, she was the acting CEO of Stark Industries. Back in the limelight… Pepper didn't like it at all, but the two of them had obviously not considered anyone targeting the Avengers when they named her as their successor in a situation like this.

She ducked her head and tried to hold back her tears. Tony wasn't…gone. He couldn't be. He was the man who refused to…to die. He'd been hit with a bomb, had his arc reactor ripped out, flown a nuke through a portal to the other side of the universe…and _survived._ There was no way a little bullet to the stomach could stop him…was there?

_The Stark Expo was the gathering grounds for any aspiring scientist who wanted to get their ideas out there. If you were recognized by Stark Industries – much less Tony Stark himself – you were almost guaranteed a contract with anyone you wanted to work with. It was like being handed a genie's lamp. Even though Stark Industries was mostly a weapons company, peace-loving scientists usually still showed up. After all, SI wanted to protect people, right?_

_Henry Pym was at the Expo. He was a scientist, after all. And even though his work was being funded, he lacked the publicity to really get his ideas out there. A camera followed him and his 'manager' as they swept through the door and down to the auditorium where Tony Stark would give his opening speech._

"_Ms. Van Dyne!" the reporter the camera belonged to called. Janet Van Dyne turned to smile at the man, Hank almost hiding behind her. "A statement? Why are you here?" Jan smiled, her short dark hair bouncing as she tilted her head._

"_Hi! Nice to see you, always. Pete, did you get a new suit? I'm here because one of my pet projects wants to enter one of his designs in the contract competition." She jerked a thumb back at Hank._

"_Pet projects?" Hank muttered. Jan rolled her eyes._

"_You hide behind me, you're a pet project." She said back. She put a hand on the side of her perfectly painted lips. "That's Hank. He's shy." She stage-whispered to the reporter – Pete. Pete held the microphone in her face._

"_What's 'Hank' working on?" He asked in a conspiring whisper. Jan smiled mischievously and put a finger to her lips._

"_It's a secret." She replied._

_Tony Stark was walking across the floor, trailed by at least three cameras. He was explaining something about the improvements to this year's Expo when he almost ran into Jan. He stopped in time, but they were still only a couple inches apart. He smiled down at the shorter woman._

"_Janet Van Dyne. What a surprise." He greeted._

"_I'd say 'likewise', but this _is_ your show, Tony Stark." Jan replied._

"_You two know each other?" Pete was intrigued, as were Tony's band of followers._

"_We've met at a few functions." Jan replied. "But Tony always disappears with one of the women before we can get a chance to really talk." Tony smirked._

"_Which brings us back to why aren't you ever the one I'm disappearing with?" Tony asked her. Jan batted him playfully on the arm as Hank coughed from behind her. Tony turned. "Oh…" He said, winking at Jan. "I see why." She shoved him._

"_I think it's almost time for your introduction speech, Tony." She reminded him. Hank coughed again and Jan raised her eyebrows, lowering her voice comically. "I mean, _Mr. Stark._"_

"_Well then I'll see you at the after-party _Miss Van Dyne._" Tony imitated, walking away. He patted Hank on the shoulder as he passed him. All four of the cameras followed him inside, leaving Jan and Hank to follow at a distance and find their seats._

"Why was that clip even in the file Nick gave us?" Natasha asked. "It had almost nothing to do with Bruce or any secret project – and judging by the date on the bottom Iron Man didn't even exist yet." Clint sighed, closing the holo-projection.

"We've cross-referenced the background on the other video and we're coming up with nothing specific. SHIELD agents aren't able to give us lower than about twenty possibilities." He said.

"Possible places?" Steve nodded. "I suggest we get started then." Clint stared at him evenly.

"Possible _countries_ Steve." The first Avenger sat down heavily in the chair.

"Well." He muttered. "That's going to complicate things."

"I'll say." Natasha sighed. "Where's Thor?"

"He's…" Clint looked at Steve. "I don't know where he is. Do you?"

"Never even saw him leave." Steve sighed. "I'll go look for him." He started to stand up but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"No need. He has returned, comrades." Thor said. Natasha pointed at him.

"How did I not see you leave or get back in here?" She asked.

"You are distracted, pouring all of your conscious thought into finding our ogre." Thor said. "It is understandable to let a few things slip your notice." She shook her head.

"Whatever. Where did you go?" She asked.

"I went to converse with Fury." He said. "And while I was in the flying ship, some communication came in from the unknown ally. We were informed of a disturbance of peace somewhere near Paris a few nights ago." Natasha and Clint exchanged a look.

"Do you think it could be related to Bruce's disappearance?" Clint asked.

"I think it's the only lead we've got, and we better follow up on it before it disappears along with any hope of finding Dr. Banner." Steve said, already picking up his shield.

"So I guess this means we're going to commandeer a shuttle again?" Natasha wondered, standing up and taking her gun from the table. Clint shrugged.

"We could ask nicely first, but just taking one is easier." He replied.

"_If_ we can find the helicarrier." Steve reminded them.

"That shouldn't be a problem." Clint nodded at Thor. "Do you think you can fly back to the ship and bring us back a shuttle?" He asked. Thor shrugged.

"That should not pose a problem to me." He said. "I will meet with thee on top of the Stark Tower." Steve nodded.

"We'll be there." He said. "Count on it."

"Jarvis, access Tony Stark's private files." Nick Fury said. After his visit with Thor, he had locked himself in his office again and connected to Tony's home computer. A few beeps were followed by a curt response.

"That function is not available." Jarvis replied. Fury folded his hands and leaned his elbows on the desk.

"Override code 6425FURY74353." He tried. A few more beeps followed.

"I'm sorry, Director Fury. The restriction is not able to be overridden by your access code." Jarvis apologized. "May I ask for what purpose you wish to see the files?" Fury sighed.

"Let's just say there are a lot of questions being asked and no one to answer them." He said.

"Are you referring to Tony Stark's knowledge of the contents of the files and the disappearance of Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk?" Jarvis clarified.

"Yes I am." Nick replied. "Can you help me find Banner?" Jarvis' systems beeped.

"I am sorry, that function is not available. Do you wish to override function?" He asked.

"_Yes._" Fury stretched the word.

"Please state the proper override code." Nick Fury groaned.

"_Wow you're slow." The man was sitting behind a desk, but the whole picture was blurred out. "Why haven't you found it yet?" He tapped his fingers on the desk, then sighed._

"_How are you feeling?" Another man's voice asked him._

"_I'm _fine_." He assured him. "I just need to get this done. They have to find the clues I left in the videos…but they'll need a second video to do that. It's all about comparison for these guys. You need to give them something to base their findings off. They'll figure it out if they see it again." The man moved closer, into the view of the camera._

"_Have you ever thought that maybe they're not as smart as you give them credit for?" He asked. The man at the desk stopped tapping his fingers._

"_No. In fact, I'm pretty – no, absolutely – sure they're _smarter_ than I give them credit for." He said fiercely. The other man sighed._

"_I just don't think you should be stressing yourself out too much in your condition…"_

"_My _condition_? Seriously? I'm thinking about someone's life here!"_

"_So am I." Both men were quiet for a long time. Finally, the first man sighed._

"_Scrap this. Let's start again." He said. The second man hesitated, but finally moved to the camera and turned it off._

**Okay what did you think? Sorry it's a little rough…I needed to plant a bunch of ideas in there but I promise next time will show something growing out of this mess. Oh, and thanks for waiting so long. Also, yes, Ant-Man and Wasp were in this chapter. I thought they needed a shout out after getting rejected in the movie. Review!**


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